10:25 pm: Marie Barron enters the Castle.

The doors opened, revealing the shape of her body standing on the border. She glimpsed back to spot the ongoing battle between her brother and his friends, counting herself lucky he was strong enough to stall them.

That was when Talen stopped. After abruptly stopping in the middle of the stairs, he huffed, then hurriedly resumed stepping downward. The instant he reached the bottom, his gaze didn't falter—still aimed ahead at the brown fist shooting toward his open left eye.

Once her knuckles grazed his aura, an automatic hit scraped her nose and cheeks, sending her flying back into the wall. Wiping the blood from her nose, Marie pulled off and stood straight, raising her fists and arming them with Fate. Talen strolled down the rest of the stairway, reaching the bottom and stopping.

"You're Marie, Uri's little sister.” Tal’s head tilted to the side. “What do you gain from fighting beside him?"

"Are you seriously asking me that? Why do you think? At least I'm loyal to him!"

"Excuse me?"

"Shut up! He told me what happened when he did what he did and how you reacted. If you were his best friend, you'd have stood by him despite everything! It isn't like he slaughtered innocents or anything, you know that! So why? WHY DID YOU HAVE TO LET HIM DIE!”

The embers of Fate ignited his arms. Guiding his Power's embodiment across his body from the chest, the lawyer was engulfed by a raging fire that charred everything around him. But Marie wasn't worried. If this was all the prestigious Talen Amit had to show for his legendary Unconquerable technique, she could undeniably surpass him.

The lawyer jumped and spun around in the air, smashing his leg straight down into Marie's skull.

'Last time I struck his aura, an automatic attack hit me.'

Marie sidestepped away, hearing Talen's heel slam into the concrete while cracking it open. Sprinting after her, the lawyer's hand raised and eyes left a trail of light flying out from both pupils.

"If you think you're gonna be able to beat me then you're sorely mistaken. Tell me what Uriel's planning so I don’t have to kill you."

Marie scoffed. "You don't have the guts."

Instantly, he punched her in the gut, grabbed her by the chin, and slammed her into the ground. Marie rolled away and jumped to her feet, summoning the pen between her fingers. Once again, the lawyer was much quicker—swatting it from her hand before chopping her straight in the throat.

Marie grabbed her neck, uncontrollably hacking while attempting to retreat. He kicked her across the face, watching her spin across the air and land onto the floor with a new bloodied lip. He knelt over her and dangled his fist over her features—but despite the threat of pain awaiting her, the banished princess continued struggling. Then, something stopped him.

He could've easily punched through her skull without any issue. But how could he ever? When unfortunate circumstances arise, he's forced to remember simpler times in the past. When she was simply his annoying little cousin. At this point and time, that was all that could flash through his head.

Unable to reconcile the difference between mind and matter, Talen backed away. Marie sat up and wiped her nose with shimmering eyes.

"What's happening?” Sniffling, she clenched her fists and glared at him. "Why'd you STOP!”

He looked at his bloody knuckles, stumbling to hit his back against the wall he'd thrown her into earlier. He gradually slid down the length until his bottom hit the floor.

"Your brother was the difference I needed in my life to make things better. In the past, I was so rough and ignorant; I couldn't understand anything bigger than myself. And though it took some time, with Uriel, I always felt the most comfortable. He, Alora, Anthony, and I. Even my ex too. I blamed myself every day for not doing more, for not understanding. I failed him. And, by not doing better, I failed you too, Marie."

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Talen gazed at her with tearful eyes.

"I'm sorry."

Marie widened her eyes. Before she looked away and hitched her breath. Shakily inhaling after another minute, she pushed herself up, stood tall and walked over to Talen.

She looked down at him. "I'm sorry too. I shouldn't have insulted you, you haven't done anything wrong. Our father is the one to blame."

"What?” Tal looked up at her. “Why?"

"After everyone thought Uri died, I was exiled from the castle and forced to scavenge to survive in the kingdom. A few days ago, he reached out to me to tell me he was alive and with that, he had new plans. He covets the Crown, not for himself, but for the sake of a revolution. There's no way the King would ever relinquish the Crown and throne himself so we'll have to do it by force. We'll create a new world under Uriel’s rule. That's the end my brother longs for. A world without chaos—without monsters."

Talen chuckled. "Monsters, huh? Then why attempt a jailbreak?"

His voice halted her once she started walking away. "Sometimes, the ends justify the means. You should know better than anyone: in order to defeat a monster, you have to become one. See you soon, Talen." She vanished into the shadows of the castle.

After enough time passed following their short-lived bout, the lawyer wiped his bloody knuckles dry and stood up straight. Memories of the past upon remembering their conversation and the image of her face just minutes prior came flooding in—so much so he felt that the only thing he could do was break down and cry. But he was stronger than that.

He withheld the urge with a shaky inhalation. Turning his head to the left to look down the same corridor Marie had vanished into, Talen cleared his throat and nodded to himself. He still had a mission to complete. After all, he couldn't be bound by this; the Unconquerable was so much stronger than petty human emotions. His eyes closed, lips venting a long sigh.

'I need to keep moving.'

Back outside, Alora slashed Uriel's face. His head threw back, barely dodging the stroke by one lone hair. Spotting Anthony fall from the sky, he instantly flipped back once the vessel decimated the ground with his fist. Sliding onto his feet, the Prince watched as Anthony stood and followed with idle arms by his sides.

The aura enveloping him moved autonomously, discharging missile-like projectiles at Uriel's defense. After chopping each of them aside, so each would result in another explosion imploding into existence behind him, Tony had closed the distance. The more punches he threw, the more predictable they were to dodge and block. Nevertheless, the gift of foresight didn't weaken the Fate imbued into each of his continuous strikes.

Uriel grabbed his knuckles and punched him in the gut. Standing his ground, Tony chopped his opponent in the throat at both angles and then kicked him dead in the chest. The Prince soared, rolling across the ground before finally grinding to a halt in front of the Castle’s main entrance. He didn’t waste any time opening another golden portal that shot out another winged Angel toward Tony. Whitlock squinted, aiming his pointer finger forward and sticking up the thumb to make the shape of a gun.

When Effect of Disgust is less than 100 meters away from the human target, not only is the range widened but the destruction is heightened. This means that as long as Anthony stands this far away from his enemy, the technique's hit would be a one-hit-kill.

"Bang."

All that remained for almost a mile between them was debris where the path used to be and the rumbling castle following the decimation. Running down the hall, Talen widened his eyes and almost fell over from inside, catching himself against a wall and using it to stand upright again.

‘Anthony's technique? The hell’s going on outside?’

Holding himself against the wall, Tal groaned and warped around the corner.

‘If what Marie said is true, then there's only one thing stopping Uriel from enacting this revolution. And without question that's—'

Meanwhile, below the castle, an elevator released a ding from within and spread apart, revealing the princess’s dark-skinned face and bright yellow eyes. Standing amid the knights’ dead bodies, the Syndicate assassins turned to Marie and saluted upon her arrival. After carefully stepping over the numerous mutilated corpses, she walked to the end of the corridor while they gathered behind her. The path ahead was blocked by a wide mechanical door.

The shape of Fate manifested around her. With her technique's quiet activation appeared the trusty pen right between her fingers to which she began writing on space.

"Whatever guards the Gate to Nullspace will vanish."

On command, the remaining doors, Displacements, and knights disappeared. No sign of their existence remained, there was only the long hallway before them with the glowing Gate to Nullspace Penitentiary right at the end.

Instead of opting to go outside to help Tony and Lora, Talen stopped in the middle of the corridor he was walking down, having been immediately distracted by the dozen odd signatures trailing their way across the prison below him. That was when Amit’s head perked up. Raising his hands and holding them in front of one another, the Unconquerable’s eyes were entirely engulfed by bright green Fate. Spiraling the shape of it around his skin to produce an ankh hovering between his trembling palms, Talen’s hands clapped it, producing something akin to an electrical spark that traveled through the air and into the very foundation of the castle.

Just when they were seconds away from reaching the Gate, the Syndicate assassins abruptly keeled over; a newly-made hole burnt through all their chests. Marie's wide-eyed build instinctively stepped back. The subconscious urge to flee led her to begin stepping back—stumbling back into the wall that was the Unconquerable's chest.

His hand on her shoulder was followed by the familiar sounds of his menacing intonation for vocals.

"Did you think I'd let you flee so easily? I already knew they'd infiltrated before you even entered. I put a curse on you. One that only killed each and every people surrounding you. I'm sure you know the condition for such an ability is simple: the curse doesn't kill the person it's placed upon. Thanks for your help but it's time for you to sleep."

Talen's palm raised, preparing to knock her out with one chop. Then, another familiar voice stopped him. Raspier then he remembered yet it was undeniable who it belonged to.

"Yo!"

They turned around. Standing at the corridor's end with white ponytailed hair and a smug smirk accompanying that angelic appearance was none other than him. The dead Angel Prince, Uriel Barron, laid bare before his very eyes.

"It's been a while."